Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain and some transferable lessons for the EU - NESET ad hoc question No. 4/2019
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Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain and some transferable lessons for the EU NESET ad hoc question No. 4/2019 Silvia Carrasco and Gabriela Poblet
Please cite this publication as:
Carrasco, S; Poblet, G. (2019). ‘Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain and some transferable lessons for the EU’,
NESET Ad hoc report no. 4/2019.
CONTRACTOR:
ABOUT NESET
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AUTHORS:
Silvia Carrasco, EMIGRA-Centre of Research on
Migrations and Department of Social and Cultural
Anthropology. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, SPAIN
Gabriela Poblet, Europa Sense Murs / Europe Without
Borders and Department of Social and Cultural
Anthropology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, SPAIN
PEER REVIEWER:
Dragana Avramov, NESET Scientific coordinator
LANGUAGE EDITOR:
James Nixon, freelance editorOverview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
CONTENTS
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 4
Methods and data ................................................................................................. 5
Heterogeneity of Roma in Spain ...................................................................................... 7
The case of Andalusia ............................................................................................ 8
Large urban areas.................................................................................................. 8
Roma nationals from other EU countries ............................................................... 9
Between exclusion and integration ............................................................................... 10
Employment........................................................................................................ 10
Education ............................................................................................................ 13
Housing ............................................................................................................... 17
Health ................................................................................................................. 18
Social inclusion and political representation ........................................................ 19
Identity and Roma activism ........................................................................................... 21
Conclusions and transferable lessons for the EU............................................................ 22
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................. 26
3Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
INTRODUCTION
Spanish Roma or ‘Gitanos’ are one of the largest Roma populations in any European country. Although
the Council of Europe (2012) Estimates and official numbers of Roma in Europe, updated on 2 July
20121, established that the Roma populations in Spain, Romania and Bulgaria each numbered around
750,000, estimates of Roma nationals in the Romanian and Bulgarian National Roma Integration
Strategy 2012-2020 (2015) are lower, at around 633,000 in Romania and 350,000 in Bulgaria, while
official Spanish estimates indicate that between 500,000 and 1 million Spaniards are Roma.
The idea of a “Spanish model of integration” for Roma people has gained popularity over the last
decade. In 2010, even the New York Times used this expression to highlight that Spain had invested
more in Roma integration than any other country in Europe 2. In 2012, the Fundación Secretariado
Gitano or Spanish Roma foundation (hereafter, FSG)3, the most important non-profit social organisation
working for the inclusion of the Roma people in Spain, also referred to a “Spanish model of Roma
inclusion” that could provide a positive blueprint for other countries, with its emphasis on active
citizenship and the co-responsibility of all the social actors involved4. Moreover, the comparative
findings of the Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS II) carried out in
20175 show that the situation of Roma in Spain is better than in other EU member states, in relation to
certain aspects of key social integration areas such as access to health services and participation in
education. In comparison with its previous survey in 2011 survey, improvements in the areas of housing
and employment were minor.
Research conducted in Spain also confirms that the Spanish Roma population’s quality of life the has
improved over recent decades as part of an overall improvement in the living conditions of the
country’s population as a whole. Since the early 1980s, important public policies have been
implemented in the development of the welfare state. The pace of progress has varied during different
periods, but achievements include universal healthcare and the expansion of all levels of public and
state-funded education, social housing and slum clearances, and minimum income systems. This reform
process ran in parallel to the expansion of the labour market until the 2008 economic crisis. Rather than
creating targeted policies in specific fields, for most of this period one could speak about strategies that
focused on promoting the participation of Roma citizens in social resources – that is, access to their
rights as Spanish citizens, although within somewhat assistentialist dynamics (Bereményi and Mirga,
2012). This promotion was largely carried out by the Fundación del Secretariado Gitano, enhanced by
the creation of a large number of local Roma associations across the country6.
1
https://rm.coe.int/1680088ea9
2
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/opinion/lweb13spain.html
3
Although originally created in the 1960s and linked to the Catholic Church, the organisation’s current structure was developed
in the early 1980s, and its name was changed to the FSG in 2004. The Fundación del Secretariado Gitano (FSG) is funded by
European, national, regional and local administrations and defines its mission as “the comprehensive promotion of the Roma
community based on respect and support for their cultural identity”. It provides guidance and technical assistance to the
government and develops programmes and services to improve living standards and create equal opportunities for Roma
people. See: https://www.gitanos.org/que-hacemos/areas/international/partner_organisations.html
4
Políticas de inclusión social y población gitana en España. El modelo español de inclusión social de la población gitana (2012)
[Social inclusion policies and Roma/Gitano population in Spain. The Spanish model of social inclusion of the Roma/Gitano
population].See: http://www.gitanos.org/upload/18/83/Politicas_de_inclusion_social_y_poblacion_gitana_en_Espana__ES.pdf
5
https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2016-eu-minorities-survey-roma-selected-findings_en.pdf
6
Roma activism and associations developed earlier, like neighbours’ association in general, as methods of political struggle
under the late dictatorship and during the political transition to democracy. Later, indirect promotion of associations by the
4Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
However, several studies point to a continuing gap in equality between the Roma population and the
rest of the Spanish population that has been exacerbated during the last decade of economic recession,
which also affected other vulnerable groups. For example, a survey carried out in 2018 by the
foundation Fomento de Estudios Sociales y Sociología Aplicada (hereafter, FOESSA) revealed that during
the crisis, social exclusion intensified among Spain’s Roma population, and around one-third of Roma
went from situations of moderate exclusion to situations of severe exclusion (Hernández Pedreño,
García Luque and Gehrig, 2018). In fact, poverty, inequality and racial discrimination continue to affect a
segment of the Roma community in all social areas (Laparra, 2011; FSG, 2013; FOESSA, 2014 ). It is
interesting to note, however, that certain segments of Roma households in Spain have been able to
avoid the worst effects of the recent crisis and economic changes, and have maintained or slowly
moved towards a more integrated position, although 26% of Roma remain in a situation of “precarious
integration”, and only 9% are in a “fully integrated” position ( Hernández Pedreño, García Luque and
Gehrig, 2018). This means that between 2007 and 2018, social polarisation within the Roma population
has increased
On 3 April 2018, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights urged Spain to
take action against the “disproportionate inequality and pervasive discrimination affecting Roma
people” in the country7. But while alarming levels of exclusion were estimated to affect 54% of Spain’s
Roma population, the situation for Roma in Spain was still much less negative than for those in some
other EU countries.
Drawing on existing studies and research literature, this report provides an overview of the social
integration of Roma in Spain, and briefly reviews evidence on the progress made and some effective,
related policies and approaches within the areas of employment, education, housing and health. It also
includes brief sections on political representation, associationism and activism as part of the processes
of social integration of Roma in Spain. For the purposes of this report, ‘social integration’ is understood
according to the terms of Ferguson’s background paper for the United Nations8 (Ferguson, 2008),
inspired by a human rights and social justice approach, as an inclusionary goal implying equal rights in
practice, resources and participation in the interdependency between recognition, redistribution and
representation (Fraser, 1990 and 1996). This approach therefore also aligns both with research and
within third-sector organisations in Spain in regarding economic, political and social-relational
dimensions as essential dimensions for social inclusion (FSG, 2012).
Methods and data
Ethnic identification is forbidden by law in Spain. As a result, no accurate data exist on the number of
Roma people in the country, and representative samples cannot be determined on the basis of the
census. This also affects the availability of official data on all specific areas of social integration. All
studies and reports that focus on Roma rely on estimates and apply indirect techniques. Since the mid-
1970s, researchers and successive governments have worked on the basis of figures ranging between
government has not been free of controversy, as it may be regarded as responding to the government’s own desire to deal
with a reduced number of parties.
7
https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/document_gem/official-document-system/reports-to-the-economic-and-social-
council/
8
Report commissioned by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) for the Expert Group
Meeting on Promoting Social Integration, Helsinki, Finland, 8-10 July 2008.
5Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
570,000 and 1,100,000 people (Laparra, 2011). The Council of Europe, in its last update in 20129,
estimated that there were approximately 705,000 Roma in Spain (1.57% of the country’s total
population), and the National Roma Integration Strategy in Spain (European Union, 2012) adopts this
figure as its working reference.
Paradoxically, one shortcoming of this well-intended anti-discrimination philosophy10 has been that the
lack of official statistics and constitutional regulation to avoid labelling and discrimination makes it very
difficult to apply standard tools of analysis to detect and assess crucial issues such as the evolution of
discrimination in practice or social integration indicators in different areas. One example of this is a
recent study into the population that is especially vulnerable in terms of employment (Felgueroso,
2018). This research was carried out with the collaboration of many third-sector organisations, and
includes special acknowledgments to the FSG in its published materials – but does not refer explicitly to
any data concerning Roma. Roma are overrepresented in the target population of the study, and the
FSG assisted in accessing these of hard-to-reach sectors of the population, but no data disaggregated by
declared ethnic affiliation is provided. This is not uncommon.
Differences in findings concerning the situation for Roma in Spain may also be attributed to the fact that
surveys and studies have focused on different segments of the Roma population, or used different
methods. For example, the EU MIDIS II, the second wave of the European Union Minorities and
Discrimination Survey launched by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in 2015, focused on trends in
the discrimination experienced by Roma over time in nine member states including Spain. The study
applied sampling and interviewing methods based on the principle of self-identification, following the
human rights-based approach to data collection recommended by the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR)11. The IV FOESSA Report (2014), in contrast, revealed some of the
complexities and misrepresentations of Roma when it comes to gathering survey data. Stereotypes and
prejudice may influence the pollsters, resulting in variations in estimates. During fieldwork, some
pollsters may ‘over-identify’ individuals and households in poor neighbourhoods as being Roma.
Conversely, some individuals and households may not be asked to participate in surveys because they
are perceived as too “integrated” or to have too high an income to be Roma. At least one instance of
this has occurred, in the housing conditions report of the Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social
Welfare in 2016.
Another type of shortcoming in the data can be seen with regard to education. Here, the ‘invisibility
strategies’ employed by some students and families in order to be less distinguishable from the general
population, add to the lack of data disaggregated by ethnicity. In a well-known comparative study
(Abajo and Carrasco, 2004) on successful academic trajectories of Roma youth in five regions, most of
the informants revealed that they had used ‘invisibility’ to cope with the stress of feeling alone, and as a
defence strategy against racism12. This included, for example, not revealing their ethnicity to their
classmates, and trying to dress and behave in ways they associated with the mainstream student
9
https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/combatting-discrimination/roma-and-eu/roma-
integration-eu-country/roma-integration-spain_es
10
The same criterion is applied in other countries, for example in France and Portugal. Comparative international research
frequently has to deal with this issue, especially when applying quantitative techniques.
11
https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/stats/documents/ece/ces/ge.15/2016/Sem/WP20_FRA_ENG.pdf
12
It is worth mentioning that there are no clearly identifiable physical characteristics of Roma or non-Roma in Spain as
perceived by Spaniards, beyond performed or attributed styles mostly relating to social class, age, etc. Moreover, while
“Gitano” and derived words are definitely employed with a negative connotation when referring to behavioural stereotypes,
they do not retain this negative connotation when used to describe the physical appearance of non-Roma men and women.
Quite significantly, virtually no research has been carried out on this issue, which may also be the case in other EU countries.
6Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
population. This strategy was confirmed by several participants in a study by FSG (2008) that collected
successful life-stories of Roma youth.
The FSG keeps an up-to-date documentation centre, compiling research publications and reports, but
reduced financial support over the last decade due to the economic crisis has made its task more
difficult, and the number of studies produced or commissioned by the foundation has declined abruptly.
While the FSG’s focus has widened to include the struggle against systemic discrimination and gender
inequalities13, no up-to-date and accurate data are available on the socioeconomic conditions of the
Roma population. The assessment of those programmes that have been implemented has been limited
to impact among participants or beneficiaries, but not in terms of the whole Roma population. It is
worth noting that the existence of diverse regional plans, each of which depends on the region’s
individual policy priorities, coexists with a number of national programmes (for example, ACCEDER, a
programme for the promotion of access to the regular labour market). As will be shown later, these
divergent priorities also relate to heterogeneity in the situation of Roma people in different areas and
regions. In the absence of statistical data, this heterogeneity further complicates the possibility of
drawing overall conclusions on the impact of policies on the Roma population in Spain as a whole.
Finally, given the lack of a national research plan to fill the knowledge gaps that exist in relation to the
situation of Roma people in Spain, the availability of data largely depends on the preferences and
choices of individual researchers for particular topics and priorities of basic, rather than applied,
research in certain areas.
HETEROGENEITY OF ROMA IN SPAIN
Shortly after their arrival in the Iberian Peninsula via the Pyrenees at the beginning of 15th century, the
Roma became the target of a long history of persecution and attempts at ethnocide and genocide,
together with forced settlement and assimilation laws14. In contrast to the experience of Roma in other
European countries, however, Roma in Spain were never enslaved. Before Spain’s Constitution was
enacted in 1978, Roma were considered stateless by default, although they could register to become
Spanish. Many Roma in industrial and urban areas did so during the economic development of the
1960s, shifting from old subsistence niches (for example, horse dealing and as a temporary labour force
in agriculture) to unskilled jobs in industry, construction and tourism, together with the expansion and
further regulation of street markets and access to motor vehicles (San Román, 2010). Automatic equal
citizenship was granted to Spanish Roma by the 1978 Spanish Constitution, Article 14 of which officially
makes ethnic discrimination illegal. Since then, improvements in the social integration of Spanish Roma
have been the result of a combination of general and targeted policies. Above all, however, it has been
the result of access to the universal welfare state that has been developed over recent decades,
especially since the mid-1980s.
Not all Roma across the country have benefitted equally from these improvements, however. This
disparity has given rise to an internal process of regional polarisation, in addition to the process of social
polarisation already referred to. For a proper understanding of the differences in the social integration
of Roma in Spain, it is important to pay attention to regional, local and social contexts. First is the case
13
https://www.gitanos.org/upload/14/89/Informe_de_discriminacion_2018__ingles_.pdf
14
An overview of these laws includes the first persecution law in 1499 enacted by the Catholic Queen and King; forced
settlement (Charles I, 1539); prohibition of language and culture (Philip II, 1560-1570-1586); prohibition from living in
communities (Philip IV,1633); consignment to serfdom and being forced to work in agriculture (Charles II, 1695); decree of total
extermination (Ferdinand VI 1749).
7Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
of Andalusia, the region with by far the highest percentage of Roma in Spain. Here, levels of integration
are not homogeneous, but are higher than in other regions of Spain. Andalusia is also unique from the
perspective of its culture and historical heritage, to which important contributions have been made by
Roma culture and folklore. Second are those Roma on the peripheries of large urban areas throughout
Spain – either those who have migrated from rural areas during several waves of industrial
development, or those few who still make their living travelling between different areas, relying on
temporary work. In some of these urban peripheries, Roma have integrated as part of working-class
neighbourhoods, although some have experienced significant processes of marginalisation and
ghettoisation. Finally, the case of migrant Roma from other EU countries is radically different from that
of Spanish Roma. In spite of being EU citizens, Roma from Eastern European countries are considered to
experience the greatest exclusion and stigmatisation, not only due to their dual status as Roma and as
poor immigrants, but also due to their mobility, which makes them optimal targets for a new, global
racism (López Catalán and Aharchi, 2012)
The case of Andalusia
According to estimates, more than one-third of Spanish Roma lives in Andalusia, both in urban and rural
areas. Since the early 1990s, Andalusian Roma associations have celebrated November 22 as the day of
Andalusian Roma, a date officially recognised by the Andalusian Parliament in commemoration of the
first historical record of the arrival of Roma to the city of Jaén. The contribution of Roma/Gitano to
Andalusian culture is evident, and it is even difficult to identify the boundaries between the Roma and
Andalusian roots of several modalities of music and dance, a phenomenon unique in the world. Many
Roma groups or individuals, including Roma women and educated, middle-class Roma, have long played
an important role in promoting and defending Roma rights, participation and visibility in Andalusian
cities and villages. An interesting, positive example is the village of Lebrija15. Here, Spanish Roma are
estimated to account for 15% of the local population, Roma work at the same variety of jobs as non-
Roma Spaniards, and mixed marriages are not uncommon. While it is true, however, that the Roma
population in Andalusia can be regarded as enjoying generally higher levels of integration than in other
parts of Spain, they still experience discrimination and racism. Complaints about issues of
misrepresentation are also present. For example, as Miguel Ángel Vargas notes16, the number of Roma
prison inmates is usually publicly known, but the number of Roma university graduates is not. Likewise,
several genocide attempts against the Roma are still not included in Spanish history textbooks17.
Large urban areas
By far the most concerning situation is that of Roma people living in the working-class neighbourhoods
of large cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia or Seville, or in nearby smaller towns within their
metropolitan areas. These are the areas in which part of the Spanish Roma community continues to be a
clearly marginalised segment of the population. Serious problems include substandard housing, with
15
“Lebrija integra a sus cuatro mil vecinos de etnia gitana, que hacen crecer los matrimonios mixtos” (Lebrija integrates its four
thousand Roma neighbours, which make mixed marriages grow”. Available at: https://sevilla.abc.es/provincia/sevi-lebrija-
integra-cuatro-vecinos-etnia-gitana-hacen-crecer-matrimonios-mixtos-201511200744_noticia.html.
16
Ibid.
17
On April 8, 2017, with the celebration of the International Roma Day, the Consejo Estatal del Pueblo Gitano (National Council
for Roma People) launched a campaign with the title “La pregunta de Samuel” (Samuel’s question) to raise awareness about
the absence of the history of the Roma in Spanish textbooks. See:
https://www.gitanos.org/actualidad/prensa/comunicados/120410.html
8Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
shanty towns (which have not yet been eradicated in some urban areas) often linked to neighbourhood
conflicts and criminal activities. One example of this is La Cañada Real, a succession of settlements
located on the outskirts of the cities of Madrid and Getafe that spans several municipal areas. The first
Roma arrived here in 1994 after being evicted from the slums of Madrid’s San Blas district. Since the
economic crisis, illegal settlements have persisted. Now, impoverished Spanish Roma and non-Roma, as
well as immigrant populations from other origins including Romanian Roma, coexist in La Cañada Real
(Piemontese, 2017).
Despite universal access to education, health, and several minimum income modalities, targeted social
integration policies in these areas first needed to address marginalisation. Instead, however, a
combination of poor labour market conditions and reduced public investment in housing and education
during the economic crisis have contributed to making marginalisation a chronic problem.
This situation exists for many Roma living in high levels of exclusion on the outskirts of large urban
areas. But all these cities also contain other Roma populations, long established in popular mixed
neighbourhoods. One example is the community of Catalan-speaking Roma living in the
popular/upmarket area of Gracia in Barcelona, or the Spanish Roma in other popular neighbourhoods in
the city such as Hostafrancs, where mostly Andalusian immigrants, including many Roma, settled in the
1960s and 70s. The joint action of universal policies and targeted programmes promoting the social
integration of Roma, as well as the strategies of Roma families with higher expectations for their
children through education, may be having a positive impact but reliable, extensive data to support this
conclusion are lacking.
Roma nationals from other EU countries
In recent years, Spain has become one of the main countries receiving Roma citizens from other EU
member states, especially from Romania and Bulgaria (Gamella, 2007; Tarnovschi, 2012), who are
entitled to the rights to free movement, residence and work in Spain under the conditions established
by EU law18. According to estimates included in the EC National Roma Integration Strategy (European
Union, 2012), around 50,000 non-Spanish Roma from other EU countries live in Spain, although many
families are usually on the move in and out of the country. Romanian Roma are the largest group among
them, but are still estimated to constitute only a very small percentage of the nearly 700,000 Romanian
citizens in Spain –, by far the largest national group of immigrants. However, although many Roma
immigrants may be regarded as socio-economically vulnerable, the EC National Roma Integration
Strategy in Spain (European Union, 2012) only partially addresses the specific challenges that relate to
them. The recommendations of the Spanish ECNRIS appear to have been designed with only the Spanish
Roma population in mind, whose situation differs fundamentally from that of non-Spanish Roma. Apart
from the issue of language, which the Romanian Roma overcome easily, non-Spanish Roma differ in
terms of mobility patterns, family organisation, economic situations and activities carried out for a
living, and visible differences (not in physical appearance but in women’s clothing), all of which require
specific policy approaches to promote inclusion and prevent discrimination.
The first available studies on Roma immigrants in Spain were limited to describing the situation of Roma
communities coming from Romania. Such studies came in response to the need to better understand
this “new” phenomenon, which was very quickly highlighted in the media. While often in relation to
conflict or crime, this coverage mainly concerned the visible presence of non-Spanish Roma as beggars,
18
Since 2012, EU nationals can legally reside in an EU country other than their country of residence for longer than an initial
three-month period only if they register and prove that they have either employment or sufficient economic resources to live
on.
9Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
street sellers or car cleaners at traffic lights, as well as on public transport or around the tourist areas in
big cities. Public administrations and civil society associations undertook reports to determine the needs
of Roma immigrants and to provide answers to what was presented as a social conflict (ACCEM, 2007;
FSG, 2008; 2011). Other research has addressed the problem more thoroughly, and contributed to an
analysis of the effects – or lack of them – produced by public policies; for example, Piemontese (2017) in
Madrid and López Catalán (2018) in Barcelona. In his thorough ethnographic study, Piemontese analyses
the experiences of mobility among young Romanian Roma between the marginalised settlements on
the outskirts of Madrid and Romania. He confirms that while Romanian Roma are the potential
beneficiaries of specific policies aimed at marginalised sectors of the population, which include
marginalised Roma as a priority target, their specific needs are not really addressed due to their lack of
a fixed address. López Catalán (2018) points to institutional racism on the basis of access to rights in
practice: although legal solutions already exist to overcome the difficulties that Romanian Roma
experience in providing a fixed address (for example, using ad hoc reports by the Social Services), such
solutions are seldom applied19.
Although the situation of Roma from other EU countries could be addressed through the use of
universal policies that apply indiscriminately to all citizens and residents in need, such as the minimum
income scheme (in Spain, Minimum Insertion Income), residential instability is also connected with
negative experiences such as interrupted schooling. This limitation on Roma integration is underlined by
Gutiérrez-Sánchez (2019) in his assessment of a social intervention program to promote health,
education and housing for Romanian Roma families in El Gallinero, the most excluded area in La Cañada
Real (Madrid). El Gallinero was used by Romanian Roma as a shelter and transit station between moves,
since mobility is part of their subsistence strategy. They occupy an ambiguous position between a ‘new’
and an ‘old’ minority in the Spanish nation-state (Magazzini and Piemontese, 2016).
BETWEEN EXCLUSION AND INTEGRATION
In the following sections, we will focus on employment, education, housing and health, as well as on
political representation and associationism, to identify comparative gaps and policies to tackle them.
Employment
During the acceleration of industrialisation in Spain during the mid-20th century, a segment of the Roma
population began to access wage labour, although much later and to a lesser extent than the rest of the
population. This process stagnated during the 1970s and 80s, with the delayed effects of the 1973 oil-
related economic crisis, together with industrial modernisation and restructuring. It began again in the
late 1990s, a period of sustained economic growth and expansion that demanded low-skilled jobs,
during which Spain received immigrant labour from almost every continent.
The economic crisis that began in 2008 represented another reversal for Roma labour insertion
(FOESSA, 2014). According to EU MIDIS II (European Union, 2017), on average, 34% of Roma household
members in the nine countries surveyed declared themselves to be ‘unemployed’, with this percentage
rising to more than half of those surveyed in Croatia (62%), Spain (57%) and Bulgaria (55%). In contrast,
self-declared unemployment in Romania was 5%, followed by Portugal with 17% and Hungary with 23%.
19
The ROMEST network (http://nonprofit.xarxanet.org/tags/romest-network) in Catalonia includes third-sector organisations
and local councils, and is devoted to tackling the múltiple challenges experienced by the Romanian Roma population in the
region.
10Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
Self-declared unemployment is a problematic indicator, even more so when used to compare between
very different national labour markets, but the figure for Spain differs little from other sources.
Before analysing data on the insertion of the Roma population into the labour market in Spain and the
kinds of policies designed to promote it, it is necessary to clarify a series of concepts drawn from
qualitative research with regard to Roma and work. First, when referring to the Roma and the socio-
historical processes that have influenced their living conditions, it is important to distinguish between
marginality and poverty. Drawing on her well-known extensive research on the Spanish Roma, San
Román (1996 and 2010) reminded how marginality that was prevalent among a large share of Roma
implies the absence of standard relationship with the economic system – something that does not apply
to the non-Roma working poor. Marginalisation represents the opposite process to social integration; it
excludes segments of the population from participation and its legal, social, cultural, economic and
political benefits. Second, when considering the employment situation among Roma in Spain, it is
necessary to distinguish between employment in formal economy and informal economic activities such
as underground work (regular work activities that are neither declared for taxes, nor protected by
contract), marginal work (for example, collecting and selling scrap metal) or illegal activities (explicitly
forbidden, for example drug dealing or engaging in “monkey business”). All of this shows how only a
limited ceiling of employment (Ogbu, 1983) was actually available for the Roma for a long time.
Labour statistics measure only formal employment; therefore, many Roma (as well as other groups in
situations of exclusion) lie outside the formal labour market, but are not without paid activity. The
specific diagnoses and quantitative studies carried out on the Roma population have taken this situation
into account, and have tried to combine different instruments to obtain data on employment, work,
economic activities and income.
In the Report on the Social Diagnosis of the Roma community in Spain, coordinated by Laparra (Laparra,
2011), an analysis of the 2007 Survey of Roma Population Households carried out by the Centro de
Investigaciones Sociológicas (Sociology Research Centre, hereinafter CIS) was combined with surveys
carried out by the FSG in collaboration with Equipo de Investigación Sociológica (EDIS), which applied
the methodology of the Active Population Survey (Encuesta de Población Activa, EPA). Although these
surveys differ in the data they present and even provide contradictory evidence, the combination was
useful in contrasting formal employment with the self-perceptions of the Roma people surveyed in
relation to their activities, which are reflected in the CIS survey. The most surprising finding from the
data is the high level of participation among Roma people in the labour market and, therefore, in the
Spanish economy. Members of the Roma community have traditionally worked from an early age, but
because their economic activity was relegated to the margins of the formal labour market, this
participation had not previously been recognised. Although high rates of working activity could be taken
as an a priori indicator of integration, this activity is not what it seems, nor does it mean that Roma
enjoy the same working conditions as the rest of the Spanish population. The high rates of activity are
explained by early incorporation into the labour market and later withdrawal. In turn, entry to the
labour market soon means less investment in education, which means many Roma can only gain access
to low-skilled jobs that are often carried out in the informal economy, with low wages and precarious
working conditions.
Waged labour entails access to many areas of social protection and benefits (unemployment,
retirement, sick leave, etc.) and labour rights. The rate of wage labour among Roma is 38.4%, compared
to 83.6% among the working-age population as a whole. Nearly a quarter of Roma (24.1%) declare
themselves as dedicated “family help”, which means they work informally within the family business
without labour or social protections while “family help” as an occupation is practically irrelevant within
the Spanish population as a whole. Another situation that stands out among Roma (and in other
impoverished or excluded groups) is self-employment: 48% of the Roma population are engaged in
11Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
activities on their own, compared to a rate among the working-age population as a whole of 18%. The
activities or sectors most prevalent among the Roma population are trade (34.7%), mostly in street
markets; construction (17.7%); and agriculture (13.8%).
Regardless of the population analysed, women are less active in the labour market than men. But
according to data collected during the worst years of the economic crisis, the rate of unemployment
among Roma women (39.1%) was lower than that among women as a whole (46%). However, the 2018
FOESSA survey, which compares the situations in 2007 and 2018, reveals that the situation has now
been reversed – and by a significant margin. Unemployment among non-Roma women now stands at
18.8%, while among Roma women it has risen to 51%. It is interesting to note that according to the
FSG/EDIS 2011 survey, women represent a greater proportion of those receiving social aid (67%) than
men, but this may be partly explained by them being the ones in charge of the paperwork required for
social services on behalf of the household.
In terms of territorial distribution, rates of economic activity among the Roma population not only
reveal the heterogeneity of that population, but also highlight differences in the impact of social policies
(FSG/EDIS, 2012). Madrid has the lowest rates of economic activity and employment, well below the
Spanish average. The area with the highest rate of activity is the South (Andalusia and Murcia), followed
by the Northeast (Aragón, Navarra, the Basque Country, La Rioja) and the central regions (Castilla La
Mancha, Castilla y León, and Extremadura). Madrid also shows a much greater prevalence of self-
employment (which is an indicator of precariousness among the Roma population) than other regions
and a wage rate of 33%, compared with 74% in the East (Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands)
and 70% in the South. These indicators relate to the situation of the Roma population on the
peripheries of Madrid, to whom we referred earlier.
An analysis of universal and targeted policies to promote Roma insertion into the labour market can
explain these regional variations, and points to social integration (or the lack of it) between Spanish
Roma and other vulnerable groups. The NeuJobs report Active labour market policies with an impact
potential on Roma employment in five countries of the EU, coordinated by Messing (Messing et al.,
2012), discusses the most important programmes in five EU member states (Bulgaria, Hungary,
Romania, Slovakia and Spain) and the contexts of their application and practice. Among these countries,
only Spain had a programme at national level to promote access to the labour market that is aimed at
the Roma population, the Programa ACCEDER20.
ACCEDER is a training and professional qualification programme coordinated by the FSG. It has
been operating since 2000 in 14 Autonomous Communities, and has become a benchmark for
good practices at EU level. Although no data are available to assess its impact in the most
recent years, according to data provided in 2015, when the programme had been running for
15 years, 27% of participants gained their first access to the regular labour market as a result of
its training. Working in close cooperation with local firms, the programme specifically targets
personalised training, counselling and monitoring of the insertion of Roma into wage labour in
the regular labour market. In addition, it also focuses on those who are most in need of
promotion among the Roma communities, such as women21 and, more recently, Roma
nationals from other EU countries. The programme has issued flyers in several languages that
20
Programme web page: https://www.gitanos.org/que-hacemos/areas/empleo_y_formacion_profesional/acceder.html. The
acronym ACCEDER in Spanish means “to access”.
21
The recent book La lucha por un futuro mejor (2019) [‘The struggle for a better future’], which collects the stories of 60
women in the region of Castile and Leon, reports that an increasing number of Roma women are interested in accessing waged
labour but lack formal education to do so.
12Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
summarise its achievements22. These read: “Over 22,000 persons have found a job since its
launch (a total of 57,916 labour contracts signed) and always with a balance between men and
women, the latter accounting for 53% of the total participants. During the lifetime of the
programme, over 2,800 training courses have been given; we have worked with 19,694
companies, and a total of 82,402 people have participated (32,788 under age 30).” ACCEDER is
present in all cities and towns that have a significant estimated Roma population.
ACCEDER is undoubtedly the star among targeted programmes aimed at promoting the social inclusion
of Roma in Spain. The programme is designed to monitor individualised professional/vocational
itineraries, with specific programmes and budgets depending on regional and local adaptations. For
example, ACCEDER in the Madrid region in 2017 had a budget of EUR 1,863.209 to develop 24
programmes that reached 3,105 participants23. As well as the allocation of economic and human
resources for training, grants to participants, counselling personnel and staff from social services, the
programme relies for its success on the implementation of a joint strategy that includes the FSG, local
councils and Roma associations, regional departments of employment and business networks in
surrounding areas.
Education
In Spain, education is a competence shared between the central government and the Autonomous
Communities. The latter adapt and develop the general normative framework to produce regional laws
according to the specific characteristics of each region (for example, in relation to the choice of linguistic
models and languages of tuition). Basic education is compulsory in Spain between the ages of 6 and 16.
It is free of charge, including post-compulsory academic and vocational tracks in public schools and in
some privately-owned, state-funded schools. Higher education is not free. University fees and grants
available to low-income students vary according to regional regulations.
The EU MIDIS II (2018) results indicate that low levels of educational achievement persist among the
Roma population surveyed. Although Spain compares well with other EU members states according to
other educational indicators it is, along with Greece, Portugal and Croatia, one of the countries that has
the highest proportion of Roma without formal education, in contrast to the low proportions found in
the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria. However, results show that, of the nine countries surveyed,
only Spain (95%) and Hungary (91%) have participation rates in education that come close to the
Education and Training (ET) 2020 target. According to the study’s results, in other countries, with the
exception of Bulgaria (66%), less than half of children between the age of four and the compulsory
education starting age participate in early childhood education. The results also reveal that in only three
out of the nine countries do almost all Roma children who should be in education (pre-primary, primary,
lower secondary or upper secondary) actually attend school – 99% in Spain, 98% in the Czech Republic,
and 98% in Hungary. In Romania and Greece, the percentages of Roma children of compulsory-school
age who attend school are 77% and 69%, respectively. The results show that the proportion of Roma
children attending schools in which all schoolmates are Roma ranges from 27% in Bulgaria to 3% in
Spain. In addition, the results of the EU MIDIS II Report (European Union, 2017) also show that
segregation at the level of classes appears to be similar to school segregation: the proportion of Roma
children attending classes where ‘all classmates are Roma’ ranges from 29% in Bulgaria to 4% in Spain.
22
See flyer in English: https://www.gitanos.org/upload/52/37/Folleto-ENG_qr.pdf
23
http://www.gitanos.org/informeanual/2017/madrid/index.html
13Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
Even so, Spanish Roma have a much lower level of formal education than the Spanish population as a
whole (Laparra, 2011; FSG, 2013a), despite education indicators not being especially good for Spain,
which has the second highest rate of early school leaving24 in the EU (around 20%, according to Eurostat
2018). A high level of polarisation exists between native-born and non-EU born young people;
polarisation is also found among Spanish youth, since 42% of the same age group have achieved higher
education.
All educational indicators comparing adult Spanish Roma with non-Roma adults show a systematic gap,
although illiteracy is no longer found among Roma below the age of 50. Many adults have returned to
education as part of the requirements of the Minimum Insertion Income, or due to the involvement of
Roma associations in the organisation of literacy classes (Abajo, 2017). However, Abajo (2017) reports
that despite increasing educational aspirations for their children on the part of Roma parents, as well as
great advances in participation, both in non-compulsory pre-school education (universally free in public
schools between the ages of 3 and 6) and in universal compulsory primary and secondary schooling,
massive improvements beyond the age of 15 appear to have stagnated. At the age of 15, according to
FSG (2013a), 86% of Roma students are attending school, but this percentage declines to just 55.5% by
the age of 16 (the end of compulsory education), compared with the 93.5% of Spanish students as a
whole who remain in school.
Education is by far the most important area requiring attention and intervention in order to promote
Roma inclusion. It is here that younger generations of Roma are being left behind in the face of a
knowledge-based economy that increasingly demands a skilled and trained labour-force. The EU Roma
Strategy for Spain also declares education to be its number one priority. Important studies and reports
(FSG, 2002; Abajo and Carrasco, 2004; FSG, 2013a; Bereményi and Carrasco, 2015) have provided
sufficient evidence that education policy requires urgent changes both in terms of investment and
approach, with the close cooperation of local Roma communities. Resources for educational support;
targeted grants; universal schemes offering free school meals to those in need; peer-mentoring; close
monitoring of cases in the safe, out-of-school spaces of existing programmes – all of these may have
long-term impacts that cannot yet be assessed, but the majority of these resources and initiatives do
not reach a significant proportion of Roma children and youth, and little time is left to catch up and
cope with the already obvious effects of accelerated technological and economic changes. Evidence
supporting this is that the numbers of students engaged by ongoing support programmes are very low
compared to the total size of the Roma student population.
PROMOCIONA25 is an example of a programme that, while promising, is completely insufficient
in scale to meet the needs of the Roma population overall. Launched by the FSG in 2009 to
focus on “academic achievement and retaining young Roma in school”, PROMOCIONA has since
proved quite successful, according to the data provided. On average, 77% of students who
participate in the programme during their final year of secondary school complete their
secondary school successfully and go on to continue their studies; however, in the whole of
Spain, only around 1,000 families and students from over 300 schools benefit from the
programme each year.
24
Early school leaving or Early Leaving from Education and Training (ELET) is defined by percentage of youth 18-24 who have
completed at most a lower secondary education and are not in further education or training. See:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Early_leavers_from_education_and_training
25
https://www.gitanos.org/que-hacemos/areas/education/index.html.en
14Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
Like working class non-Roma, Spanish Roma children and youth usually attend public schools. At certain
schools in deprived urban areas, however, it is not uncommon to find a concentration of Roma
students, whose experience of segregation is greater than that of the children of working-class
immigrants who mostly arrived in the intensive immigration flows at the turn of the century. A
comparative study of the situation of Roma students in secondary education carried out by FSG and the
Ministry of Education in 2013 (FSG, 2013a) produced some clear findings: absenteeism and dropout
rates are pervasive in lower-secondary education; more girls than boys never transfer from primary to
secondary school; and a high proportion of Roma students do not graduate from compulsory secondary
education. According to data from the PROMOCIONA program, during the school year 2014-2015 “64%
of Roma students between the ages of 16 and 24 fail to complete their compulsory studies, compared
with an average 13% of the overall student body in that age bracket.” Roma students are
overrepresented in compensatory formal and non-formal education, and estimates of early school
leaving among Roma put the figure at over 90% (Eurostat 2018)26. Although the participation of Roma
students in post-compulsory academic and vocational tracks as well as in higher education has definitely
increased, their presence remains very low. Among the reasons given for leaving education at different
stages in the FSG 2013 study (FSG, 2013a), around 28% of respondents mentioned the need to work
(higher among boys and men) and the need to take care of family members (higher among girls and
women), but also being required to leave by their parents, or due to lack of motivation. In spite of these
discouraging answers, respondents expressed high aspirations, thought education was important,
planned to re-engage with education in later life, and liked their teachers and schools. It is interesting to
note that over 80% denied having experienced racism or exclusion at school, and the majority said they
had both Roma and non-Roma friends.
Some successful experiences, including those of schools with a high concentration of socially vulnerable
Roma students, have been found within specific primary schools and initiatives. Although such
initiatives have been proven to transform the motivation, participation and performance of students,
their models of intervention have not been generalised.
Some positive examples were provided by the INCLUD-ED EU project27(DDAA, 2012), which
developed a ‘whole school’ approach aimed at transforming the expectations of primary school
teachers, students and families in marginalised neighbourhoods and schools, with regard to
education. Some of those involved were Roma – although the target of the project was schools,
rather than specific groups of students. From a different perspective, another example of
positive transformation can be found at a highly segregated28 high school (90% of students
were Roma) in an impoverished neighbourhood, the IES La Mina Project, close to Barcelona.
The case involved very heavy engagement from teachers, together with seven Roma
professionals acting as educational coaches, and close contact between the management team
and students’ families. The scheme’s success has attracted attention both from the media and
government, because it is still a rare experience29.
26
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/european-semester_thematic-factsheet_early-school-leavers_en_0.pdf
27
http://creaub.info/included/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/D25.2_Final-Report_final.pdf
28
Spain is the EU country with the third-highest school segregation, and it has worsened in recent years, from 74 points in 2012
to 69 points in 2015, according to the PISA index of social inclusion in schools (OECD, 2015). PISA 2015 Technical report. Sample
design. http://www.oecd.org/pisa/ data/2015-technical-report/
29
https://www.elperiodico.cat/ca/societat/20170321/institut-escola-sant-adria-besos-mina-desafia-fracas-escolar-5915357
15Overview of the integration of Roma citizens in Spain
and some transferable lessons for the EU
Research on educational policy in Spain and the educational trajectories of Roma youth (Abajo and
Carrasco, 2004; Gamella, 2011; Bereményi and Carrasco, 2017) show that a combination of access to
universal public services and targeted measures, properly coordinated, can make a difference. However,
it is still necessary to gain in-depth knowledge of the possible negative effects of applying certain
universal policies to vulnerable populations. This was the regrettable experience for Roma students
when a progressive, comprehensive and inclusive education law (LOGSE30) was implemented in Spain in
the mid-1990s. Compulsory education was extended from 14 years of age to 16, with the transition
from primary education to secondary education coming at the age of 12. Public schools teaching pre-
school years and primary education were separated from those teaching compulsory and post-
compulsory secondary education. Although the level of education among younger generations in Spain
as a whole definitely increased, the policy had a negative impact on the majority of Roma children and
youth: after decades of struggling to encourage Roma children to complete what had previously been
the years of basic education up to the age of 14, the change produced a regression to former lower
levels of education, since fewer Roma students (especially girls) made it to the new lower-secondary
education leaving age of 16, with higher barriers to reach upper levels of the education system – a sour
outcome after the EU Decade of Roma Inclusion 2004-2014 (Bereményi and Carrasco, 2015; 2017). A
lesson can be learnt from this experience: intervention policies need to take into account the
perspectives of vulnerable groups in order to identify and avoid unintended negative effects. The
problem here is not the higher leaving age itself – 16 is not particularly high across the context of
Europe; in some countries the leaving age is 18 – but the lack of support given to Roma children within
the education policy to continue their schooling, especially Roma girls.
Regarding curricular content, current education law does not require the teaching, as part of Spanish
history, of content relating to the arrival in Spain of Roma, their subsequent persecution, and their
position in Spanish society. Although intercultural education is championed by teachers’ associations
and Roma activists, its ability to increase the sense of belonging among Roma students and improve
their academic engagement remains a subject for debate – despite more recent theoretical frameworks
and evidence regarding the conditions required to retain Roma children in education for longer. The
issue has, however, gained important recognition as an aspect of social justice (Fraser, 1996), although
it is also crucial to avoid the risk of teaching cultural traditions that can be easily essentialised and
stereotyped (Carrasco and Bereményi, 2011). A recent initiative on this issue is the inclusion of content
on the “culture and history of the Roma people” in the school curriculum of the autonomous
community of Castile and Leon.31
Finally, it is also important to acknowledge the decision, as of June 2019 (personal communication by
José Eugenio Abajo), of the education working group of the State Council of the Roma/Gitano people
(Grupo de Educación del Consejo Estatal del Pueblo Gitano), with the participation of representatives
from the Roma associations and the Ministry of Education, to implement a series of measures to meet
the urgent needs identified. This will begin with the gathering of accurate and useful data on the
situation of Roma students. The education of younger Roma generations is no longer navigating
between “progress and regression” in relation to social integration (Carrasco and Bereményi, 2013), but
30
Ley de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo, designed by the social-democrats and implemented by the conservatives.
Later reforms and counter-reforms did not modify this structure. Although LOGSE is no longer in force, it was replaced in 2006
by the LOE (Ley orgánica de educacion), and then in 2013 by the LOMCE (Ley organica para la mejora de la calidad educativa),
but none of these subsequent laws has modified this barrier.
31
The regional government created a working group, reaching agreement in 2018. The region’s Roma association subsequently
awarded a prize to the regional government for its efforts: https://www.europapress.es/castilla-y-leon/noticia-hermandad-
gitana-andalucia-premia-consejeria-educacion-cortes-cyl-20181204112227.html
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